Sort of anyway
by loveling
Summary: The chronicle of Ryoma and Sakuno's first date, well, sort of... anyway. Featuring: Sakuno the idiork, Momo the scary, worldchamp staring Karupin, and romantically retarded Ryoma. [RyoSaku oneshot]


**_Sort of… anyway_****  
ginny** puts in some spice and spring

* * *

There was a cat and the cat was watching her with narrow, unblinking eyes. Sakuno made a small "hmmph" noise. She wasn't going to be beat by a cat! Determination boiled within and she stared right back at the cat, doing her very best not to blink. The cat stared back at her, the expression in its eyes bored. While Sakuno's eyes began to water and feel dry as the contest continued, the cat wondered what sort of sane person held staring contests with animals. Sakuno bit her lip; her eyes were starting to hurt. The urge to blink became extremely powerful and Sakuno was beginning to be put into a small sort of trance.

"Karupin."

"_Kyaaaa_!" Sakuno shrieked, jumped up forward and blinked. She blinked rapidly several more times and rubbed her eyes. Sakuno then turned to the person who had broken her match with the cat.

A purring sound caught her ears and Sakuno noticed the cat was now rubbing itself against the foot of... _Ryoma-kun_?

"Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno gasped, her face immediately turning a slight pink color. "Ano..." She paused, and her fingers began to twiddle by themselves as they always did when Sakuno was feeling abashed. She wondered what she should say and ran a few conversations quickly through her mind.

"What are you doing here?" Sakuno finally asked. When she asked however, Ryoma was already starting to walk away. Sakuno sighed. "Oh darn," she said to herself, a mournful look on her face. She just had a chance to talk to Ryoma too! Sakuno pouted and headed back towards the park, her original destination.

"Boo!"

"_Kyaaaa_!" Sakuno shrieked again, jumping up. Her heart beat rapidly from the shock. She spun around, her braids whipping fast through the air with her spin. Her hands were clutching at her chest, and her brown eyes were big and doe-eyed.

"Ohayo, Sakuno-chan, right?" Momo grinned at her; he put his hands in the shape of a gun and pointed it towards Sakuno. "Boo!" He said again, teasingly.

"Ohayo, Momoshirou-senpai," Sakuno greeted quietly, her eyes straying to the side. She felt a bit nervous. She didn't dislike Momo or anything, but she always felt nervous around all of the regulars, and well, people who she wasn't friendly with in general. Sakuno, since preschool, had always been one of the quieter, more timid students.

Momo raised his eyebrows. "Momoshirou-senpai?" he repeated. He laughed at Sakuno and patted the shorter girl on the head. "Our little cheerleader doesn't have to be so formal," he mock lectured. "Momo-senpai will do!"

"Mo-mo-sen-pai," Sakuno said slowly. She looked up at Momo, who was grinning at her maniacally. "What is it?" Sakuno asked nervously when she saw the Cheshire grin on his face. Suddenly, her stomach didn't feel so good when she got a good glance of his toothy grin.

"You like Ryoma, don't you Sakuno-chan?" Momo asked slyly.

Sakuno's face went through a variety of different shades of red. "_R-Ryoma-kun_?" she uttered. "Uhh... er... Ano..." Sakuno stared at her shoes. Her cheeks were flaming and she felt a bit faint. Why was Momo, of all people, who she hardly ever talked to, asking her a question such as that? It was much too personal by Sakuno's standards, but she wasn't quite sure how to escape…

"Shut up, _Momo-senpai_." A hand came out of nowhere and pushed Momo out of the scene. Ryoma glared at Momo, Karupin still purring at his feet.

Momo pouted at Ryoma. "I was just asking a question, geez." Momo looked at Ryoma, his eyebrows raised and fingers resting on his chin thoughtfully. "You seem pretty sensitive about it though. I wonder why?" Momo gave Ryoma a sly look that Ryoma _perfectly_ understood, but confused poor Sakuno.

Ryoma shot Momo another death glare. Before Ryoma could bestow any more injuries upon Momo, Momo grabbed Karupin and ran away calling, "We found the cat! I'll return him home for you so you kiddies can spend some quality time together!" He ran off, leaving Sakuno and Ryoma stranded on the sidewalks.

"R-Ryoma-kun," Sakuno stammered. Her face was still pink from Momo's comment earlier, and was only getting pinker with his new insinuation. "Ano... what are you doing here?" Sakuno reiterated her previous question.

Ryoma turned to Sakuno, his cat-like eyes peeking out below his baseball cap. He shrugged, answering her question in a disinterested tone, "I was just around."

"Oh, I see," Sakuno responded, her own voice sounding a bit disappointed. She always craved to be around Ryoma and to hold conversations with him, to ask the trillions of questions that swam around her head. But whenever she did happen to chance upon Ryoma, Sakuno never ever really got to ask her questions mostly because she ended up losing her guts and would turn into a self-conscious maniac. She wondered constantly what Ryoma thought about her, if there was even a minute possibility that he could feel just a tenth of what she felt for him.

"That was your cat?" Sakuno asked weakly. Her eyes drifted towards where Karupin had simpered at Ryoma's feet. Sakuno felt a bit silly for having a staring contest with the cat earlier. She hoped that Ryoma had not seen the incident.

"_Aa_," Ryoma answered monotonously.

Silence held for the next few moments. Sakuno stood awkwardly a few feet away from Ryoma, who was just standing and staring back at her. She would look up at him a few times, meet his eyes, and sweep her eyes back to the side or to her shoes lightening quick. What were they doing anyway? Just standing around and doing nothing in particular. Sakuno felt like her mind was going crazy. She couldn't stand this nothingness and her feet were beginning to ache from all this tension.

"Well," Sakuno cleared her throat. "I guess I should g—"

Before Sakuno could complete her sentence Ryoma interrupted her.

"I want to eat ice cream."

Sakuno blinked. Ice cream? Ryoma wanted ice cream? She suddenly remembered Tomo-chan talking to her about some new ice cream parlor that had really delicious fried tempura ice cream. Sakuno smiled cheerfully; maybe Ryoma would go with her. It'd be like a _date _then, wouldn't it?

"Ano... Ryoma-kun, do you like fried tempura ice cream?" Sakuno asked, a finger pointed into the air. Sakuno felt especially good now, knowing that if Ryoma answered yes, she could please him. And then maybe he'd warm up to her a bit! She grinned at herself. Today would be a good day. Today would be a good day. Today would be a good day.

Maybe if she repeated it enough times in her head, it would come true.

"I don't dislike it," Ryoma answered indifferently. Ryoma suddenly noticed that his shoelaces were untied. "Karupin…" he mumbled under his breath as he leaned down and retied the bows.

"If you do like it," Sakuno mumbled, her cheeks tinting pink. "Well, I know of this place that makes great fried tempura ice cream—Well, Tomo-chan says so anyway... Do you want to...?" Sakuno blushed and looked at the ground again._ What was she doing_? Technically, she was asking him out on a _date _wasn't she? Kami-sama! She really was! She was asking him out on a_ date_! Sort of... anyway.

"Let's go." The magical words fell from Ryoma's mouth and Sakuno's face broke out into a floppy grin, her face now flushed with excitement and a little bit of embarrassment.

They walked together for a while towards the ice cream parlor.

And then Sakuno realized that she was following Ryoma, and Ryoma was not following her. Which meant that she was not leading them to the parlor where they were supposed to go and eat their fried tempura ice cream. Which meant, where were they going? Or did Ryoma know where the parlor was?

Sakuno berated herself mentally.

"Ano... Ryoma-kun, do you know where it is?" Sakuno asked sheepishly.

Ryoma glanced at her. "That new parlor, right?" He pointed his finger towards a building that was within the eye's view, with a sign that read _DAIRY LOVELY --JUST OPENED--!_

Sakuno blushed, feeling very silly and small all of the sudden. She felt very glad that it was right there and Ryoma had spotted it nonetheless. Otherwise, she'd have gotten them lost, especially with the fact that she herself did not know where the ice cream parlor was since she never bothered to ask Tomo-chan. And maybe even if she did know where the parlor was, she'd somehow lead the wrong way anyway.

Sakuno did things like that often.

They got closer to the parlor, and after the initial embarrassment, happiness started to bubble back up inside the slim girl, before she realized she had no cash on her.

Sakuno was mortified.

"Ano... Ryoma-kun," Sakuno turned crimson, and looked very distressed. "I need to go pick up some money at home, actually... I forgot my wallet." Sakuno sighed. She felt like such a dork. What was she doing anyway? Asking Ryoma-kun out on a date when she was completely unprepared! She felt like a dork. No, she _was_ a dork. An idiot. A complete idiot-dork.

She was an idiork.

"That's fine, I'll pay," Ryoma said, continuing to walk towards the ice cream shop. He seemed neither perturbed nor surprised by Sakuno's small bit of news. It was almost as if he was expecting for her to be unprepared.

Sakuno's blush grew stronger. She was reminded of when she first met him, he had said he was thirsty and she had decided to buy him a drink when she realized she had no money. In the end, Ryoma-kun had ended up buying both their drinks when she was supposed to be paying him back for giving him wrong directions. Sakuno sighed and wondered why she always did stupid idiork things like that.

"What do you want?" Ryoma asked when they got to the small shop. Sakuno looked up at the colorful menu. She made a small "_mmmm_", a finger on her lip.

"Strawberry is good," she decided. She blushed again, remembering Ryoma was going to be treating her. "Arigatou Ryoma-kun, hontou ni arigatou," she said shyly, making sure to speak loud enough so Ryoma could hear her.

Ryoma barely glanced at her. "Strawberry is good," he mumbled to himself. "Oi." Ryoma turned towards Sakuno. "Could you get some seats." Sakuno supposed it was supposed to be a question. The wording was that of a question. But somehow, it was definitely _not_ a question, but more of a direct command.

Sakuno nodded her head. "_Un_." She walked towards the seating area and looked for a clean table that could seat two. After she found one, she seated herself down. She folded her hands on her lap, waiting patiently for Ryoma to come.

A few minutes later, Ryoma arrived and placed a small bowl of ice cream in front of her. Sakuno again thanked Ryoma graciously and then sniffed the fried tempura ice cream, inhaling the savory strawberry scent. She had not realized that Ryoma was looking at her. Sakuno smiled at herself and took her fork, stabbing the ice cream with it.

Instead of questioning Sakuno, Ryoma also smelled his ice cream before he started to eat it.

They ate in silence.

Strangely, Sakuno did not feel uncomfortable at all.

After finishing, the couple stood up and threw away their paper bowls. They walked outside and Ryoma offered to take her home. At this, Sakuno was glad. She wasn't sure where she was and had been slightly troubled when she thought of how she was going to get back home.

"Arigatou," Sakuno said again. She rung the door and waited for her grandmother to open the door.

"Ryuzaki," Ryoma spoke.

"Mm?" Sakuno turned to him with a bright smile.

"Next week."

Sakuno glanced at him in confusion. "Next week…?"

"I might want to try chocolate," Ryoma said very pointedly, his eyes hidden beneath his cap.

Sakuno continued to swim in confusion for about a moment until she understood that he was asking her out… on a date! Sort of… anyway—in his own little way at least.

Sakuno smiled thoughtfully.

Sumire opened the door for her granddaughter and Ryoma turned around, starting to walk away.

"_Choutto_—Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno called out his attention.

He slightly turned and was met with the slightest, briefest contact with something soft on his right cheek.

"I'll see you around, _ne_?" Sakuno tossed him a quick smile and hastily rushed indoors.

A smile drifted onto Sakuno's lips as she fell asleep at night. Somehow, she felt like she was beginning to understand her prince.

As for Ryoma, when he walked home that day, his cheeks were tinted with the slightest of pinks.

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**A/N**: Wahaha. RyoSaku date. Bwahahahaha. Most of this was actually written quite along time ago. I just stumbled upon it recently and decided to finish it. Hoped you enjoy! 


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